Make Your Own Vintage Botanical Print Plate

I’ve always admired John Derian‘s work. His decoupaged glass plates, paper weights and cake domes, have elevated glue and printed paper to new decorating heights. When you see his work, it is no surprise to find it available in fine home stores.

Decoupage dates back to 12th century, but flourished in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries due to the high demand for artist decorated furniture. Not everybody could afford hand painted furniture, walls and ceiling which lead to the cheaper and more accessible art form of decoupage.

So why not make your own? There are plenty of royalty free sources of vintage botanical, animals, sea life and more available for download and print.

Lie your glass plate face down onto the paper you’ve selected. This gives you a visual idea of your end result. As a beginner, it’s better to make a few copies of your paper, so if you mess up your first attempt, you can give it another try. Draw a line around the plate roughly 0.5 to 0.75 inches out.

Cut the paper on the line and you’ll end up with a paper slightly larger than your plate.

Relax the paper in water for 30 seconds or so. This is really important, because it gives the paper a little bit of flexibility.

Now glue up the bottom of the plate. You can use a brush, but I always use my fingers.

Center the wet paper face down on the bottom of the plate and carefully smooth out any air bubbles.

Important Note: Have some more glue and water handy and work with very wet hands! Otherwise the paper will stick to you instead of the plate.

To help shape the wet paper to the plate, slice the edge of the paper with scissors a few times from the top rim to the bottom like in the picture above. Don’t worry too much about the wrinkles. You’re not John Derian.

Trim the rim with your scissors and …voila…you’re done. There is no picture of this step, because my hands were too gluey.

Put it upside down on a glass and let it dry for a few hours (depending on the weather). You can also paint the bottom of the plate if you want to, but I skipped that today. You can also coat the bottom with some Modge Podge or other sealant.

Nice thing about these plates is that you can eat off them because the paper doesn’t touch the food. If you are using it for food, gently hand wash. It will stand up to some use. Here is a plate with Japanese wrapping paper.

And a lobster plate with an unfinished rim:

And some switch plates:

It doesn’t have to stop here. You can decoupage pretty much anything. Your fridge for example.

Here are some more ideas:

- Paper Weights

- Vases (they need a liner, and you’d have to use small pieces of paper to accommodate the curve if you have a round shape)

LOVE IT111 I have done this before using printed material. I did a vase and plates and then made napkins and napkin rings to match. for the napkin rings use empty toilet tissue rings cut to size. I didn't get around to the place mats but could be made using plastic place mats from a dollar store (cheap!!) Just decoupage design to the top side. Be sure to use several coats of decoupage on the finished design to make it sturdy. Then you can just wipe clean after using. Pat

Very beautiful project… you did a great job… I admire your neatness … looking really lovely …I am your new follower too…Hope you would like to pay a visit to me at http://craftaworld.blogspot.com/LoveFarah

At one time everybody at work was decoupaging glass plates at break and lunch, but we used fabric. The good part about this is, the way it conforms to the shape of the plate.. You don’t have to “relax” or make more cuts into the design. I don’t know why we ever stopped. But you do have to use a few more coats of Mod Podge to seal.